Kanye West on the hunt for Coinye West creators as rapper launches lawsuit against electronic currency

A New York judge says Kanye West’s lawyers can do the research necessary to learn the identities of the creators of digital currency called Coinye West.

U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres on Thursday granted the Gold Digger rapper’s lawyers the legal authority to learn who’ll face a lawsuit saying the electronic currency was created to cash in on his fame.

West had served a cease-and-desist to the currency’s founders on January 6, ordering the team behind Coinye West to remove the rapper’s likeness from its coins. The image was then substituted with an illustration of West from the cartoon South Park, which depicts the rapper a half-man, half-fish. The Coinye West team responded with a counter cease and desist; West’s lawyers then launched a suit against the electronic currency founders, seeking to shut Coinye West down completely.

The lawsuit was filed this week in Manhattan federal court and seeks unspecified damages.

Travel Videos

There’s a big world out there, but it’s hard to see it when you’re sitting behind a desk, which is why writer Maryam Siddiqi took more than two weeks holiday. Actually, she took almost seven months to travel to 20 countries on four continents, documenting the journey the whole way. Visit our interactive map to see where Maryam went.